For those hunting for a down east drama that kicks the blueberry bucket clear across the harbor, aim for the outstanding made-in-Maine indie feature In Transit, directed by Jaclyn Bethany and written by Alex Sarrigeorgiou. Lucy (Alex Sarrigeorgiou) is about to do the biggest event of any day in the state of Maine: she is going to see if anything arrived in the mail. Then she is off to work as the bartender at Flash’s bar, which her father helped build and worked at until he got sick and passed. Lucy never finished college when she came back to take care of her ailing dad and is quite satisfied maintaining his legacy, pouring drinks. Her boyfriend, Tom (Francois Arnaud), has a good job as a chef for the summer crowds, but out of season has to work at a local pancake trough.
Ilse (Jennifer Ehle) comes in for a drink one night and starts to make a doodle of Lucy. Ilse is at an artist’s retreat and is trying to break herself out of a creative rut. She asks if Lucy can model for her, which Ilse would of course pay her for. Lucy agrees, as it looks like she may really need the extra money soon. Her father’s old friend, Garry (Theodore Bouloukos), has gotten an offer to sell the bar and he is seriously considering it. Lucy’s quiet life in Maine is about to be hit by a degree of disruption she could never see coming from behind the pine trees.
Director Bethany has summoned up one of the most authentic cinematic representations of the state of Maine I have seen. Back in the 80s, I went to a senior prom in Waldoboro, where In Transit was shot, and the only thing that was missing here was recreating a trip to Moody’s Diner. The attention to small details borders on a quaint fetishization, with all those constant knick-knacks covering every square inch. It is instant Maine, the likes of which very few pull off with such effectiveness.
“Lucy’s quiet life in Maine is about to be hit by a degree of disruption she could never see coming…”
I love how the film opens during the Christmas season, as the added twinkle helps get across the affection Sarrigeorgiou has for her place in this corner of the world. Sarrigeorgiou’s script also manages to illustrate the economic imbalance that the locals exist under in an economy that relies on serving visitors. All of her characters are filled with the richness of contradiction that makes them feel much more real than your usual people in movies.
Sarrigeorgiou keeps things quiet and mundane in between the major eruptions in the storyline. Yes, it may be life in the slow lane, but Sarrigeorgiou makes sure the audience is there at the exact moments the s**t goes down. And that is what great drama does. Bethany uses many long takes for key dialogue sequences in the film, which allows for some great performances by the leads.
Ehle is given enough room to really strut her stuff as a nuanced performer. Her rendition of an artist is superior to many others, as she really catches that tenuous purgatory many creative types exist in while they wait for outer inspiration. There are times when she tells a hundred silent stories with her eyes, without moving her lips once. Sarrigeorgiou does an outstanding job with her own material. She is relatable and enigmatic, most of all to herself, which keeps it all real. She is powerful as a performer in that she knows what to keep hidden when she does big reveals. Sarrigeorgiou, as a screenwriter, never editorializes; all of her characters speak with genuine voices of people searching to describe something much larger than their understanding of it. All of this is framed by the visual compositions Bethany has everyone exist in, with painted backgrounds adding further dimensions. It is all that true indie magic of distilling real life onto the screen, and In Transit is overflowing with it. In Transit takes the quiet way to the back of the drama barn and blows the doors right off it.
"…takes the quiet way to the back of the drama barn and blow the doors right off it. "
